Have you ever come across a message in a book that resonates with you so deeply that it seeps into your daily consciousness, beckoning you to go down a path? For me, that book is The Path of Practice
Side note: She introduced stretch clothing into the world of high fashion and was considered the “High Priestess of Stretch Clothing.” What’s not to love?
The Power to Heal
The Path of Practice is not about the wonderful invention of stretch clothing (although it is worthy of its own book); it’s about healing oneself through finding wholeness, connection to our ancestors, and the innate earthly and cosmic wisdom we hold within us.
As you can imagine, once in NYC, she lived a fast-paced life full of parties and demanding obligations. And then….at 23 years old, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Cancer soon spread to her lungs, kidneys, stomach, and small intestines. After enduring 12 major surgeries and devastating rounds of radiation, her doctors told her that they were out of options and she had, at most, two months to live. Her physicians recommended that she stay in their care while they administered heavy doses of morphine to make her comfortable until the day she died. She went against her doctor’s orders and left the hospital to live alone in a snowy cabin in the woods. Without the drug-induced stupor of morphine, she lived, ate, cried a lot, prayed, meditated, honored the natural ebb and flow of the light and dark, and her internal clock. By Spring, she emerged knowing she was free of cancer. That was in 1977, 38 years ago. Today, she’s an internationally renowned teacher and founder of Wise Earth School of Ayurveda.
Her story and message inspired me so much that I flew to the East Coast to take the Wise Earth training in Women’s Health. That was in 2010, and I must admit that I’m not implementing all that I learned; however, the core messages have been woven into my daily practices and have become much more prevalent in my consciousness recently.
Like many of the things I have learned from my spiritual teachers, I have taken the underlying message and expressed the practice in my own way. The core lesson I took away from the experience is to align your innate rhythm with that of nature and the cosmos (the universe seen as a well-ordered whole).
The Simplified Life
I’ll admit, it’s not an easy task while living in a 40-plus-hour work week “cycle” constructed by us humans. We live in a world where our natural cycles seem to be more of a hindrance, something to be manipulated so that we can fit into that box and get shit done. I think that is why the book is in my daily consciousness; I feel a calling to find a better way.
“Sadhana is a Sanskrit word whose root, sadh, means to reclaim that which is divine in us, our power to heal, serve, rejoice, and uplift the spirit. Sadhana practices encompass all our daily activities, from the simple to the sublime, from cooking a meal to exploring your inner self through meditation. The goal of sadhana is to enable you to recover your natural rhythms and realign your inner life and daily habits with the cycles of the universe. When you begin to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature, your mind becomes more lucid and peaceful, and your overall health improves. Your entire life becomes easier.” Bri. Maya Tiwari in The Path of Practice.
UPDATE 12/7/2020: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I closed my practice in Portland. I moved from my city apartment to Michigan to be with family. Nine months later, I live in a wooded area by a river. I cook healthy meals and sleep when I’m tired. I wake up when I’m ready. I forage and spend every day in nature. I enjoy a simpler life.
I’ve repurposed an old cabin that wasn’t being used into my healing cottage. My little healing cottage sits above a river. From my new office on the cabin porch, I can listen to the salmon spawn and watch the chickadees splash around in the birdbath. I had this vision in my mind for decades. I even had pictures of “she-sheds” taped to the inside of my closet door for years. Honestly, it was starting to seem unattainable.
In hindsight, I had been preparing for this time well before the COVID pandemic. A couple of years before, I took an online course called “A year to clear what’s holding you back”. It included a daily exercise to clear both the physical and mental clutter in my life. Slowly, I let go of stuff I didn’t need and created better habits of organization. When I moved to Michigan, I could fit all of my belongings in a 4X6 storage container. I began teaching online courses in abdominal self-care. I enjoy helping women worldwide learn about self-care, abdominal massage, and other healing methods.
Author: Barbara Horsley has more than 26 years of experience as a licensed massage therapist. She specializes in abdominal massage and Visceral Manipulation™ and is an NCBTMB-approved educator. In addition to being certified in abdominal massage, she also studied biomechanics and restorative exercise. She is also a Certified Women’s Herbal Educator and a graduate of the IWHI Perimenopause & Menopause Certificate Program.